There is zero information at this time connecting Robert Bales to the drug mefloquine. One article raises the possibility. If it occurred, it might help explain the massacre, but only if it is a fact that he took this drug. The article explains about how mefloquine can affect behavior. The risks have been known for at least 15 years, as a search on mefloquine risk shows. From the article:
“‘You’re ready to take that plunge into hurting someone or hurting and killing yourself, and it comes on unbelievably quickly,’ said one Special Forces soldier identified with permanent brain damage from Lariam [mefloquine].
“The UPI report also revealed how mefloquine use was involved in half of the suicides among troops in Iraq in 2003. The reported also stated that the suicide rate dropped by 50 percent after the Army stopped implementing the drug.”
The costs of war radiate in all sorts of directions.
10:40 am on March 27, 2012
